


shattered

by meryah16



Series: Broken Pieces [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Amnesia, BAMFs, Gen, OCs - Freeform, Siblings, Snipers, mind-wiping, set in the MCU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 20:29:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3868753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meryah16/pseuds/meryah16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They're invisible, silent, untraceable, and deadly. Meet the Adelphoi, ten men and women designed for destruction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> “Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.”  
> ~Winston Churchill
> 
> Consider this flung.

He is born on a white hospital bed, staring at a white curtain, with a white ceiling over his head and a white pillow under it. Through the minuscule crack between the bottom of the curtain and the door, he can see shadows of people passing. Someone is pounding a mallet somewhere inside his skull, so he closes his eyes again.

When next he wakes up, a man is standing at the foot of the bed, writing on a pad. He moves to the head of the bed and holds out a small oblong object, then reaches for his head. He instinctively tries to recoil, but the man makes a soothing gesture and slips the object into his ear. And suddenly the world shifts and it’s like another dimension opens up.   
He can hear footsteps on the tiles outside the curtains, he can hear the faint beeping of the machines beside his bed, he can even hear the breathing of the man at his side.  
‘Welcome to the Initiative, Ten.’


	2. Chapter 1

One hundred and ten days after their birth, Alpha and Beta are dropped in separate locations in the dense forest bordering their base. Twenty-five hours and twenty minutes later, Alpha meets up with Beta. Twenty-one hours and forty minutes after that they arrive at the rendezvous, one hour early, with one badly-sprained ankle and a large amount of scrapes and bruises.

When they get back to base, Ten and Five are given their first real files. Training is over. 

***

Their first few missions are basically milk runs: Alpha breaks into an office to abscond with some files, Beta ‘removes’ a politician, the Adelphoi (all ten together) abduct a scientist.   
The fourth mission is a bigger one.

They have to assassinate the speaker at a meeting, then plant falsified documents. The logistics are actually simple and Ten and Five work out the details over the evening, assigning parts and times. By the time everything is worked out, they all have duties according to their rôles, hackers and sneaks and hitters and tacticians.   
And Ten is given the assassination.

He’s killed before, of course: all ten have gone through the requisite animal terminations. But this is the first human he will kill, and he finds himself unable to sleep the night before the mission.   
As he paces the balcony outside the motel room, trying his hardest not to dwell on the feel of the deer’s blood running over his hands, a sudden flash of - something - sweeps through his mind - blood-red hair and black leather under his fingers, shoulders against his, the sharp edge of a knife whistling through the air - and finds himself, gasping, holding the railing with white knuckles. A headache pounds in his brain.  
The fourth such image since his birth, and he has no idea where it came from.

A sound from behind makes Ten turn. Eight closes the motel room door and comes to stand beside him.  
‘Psyching yourself up?’ he asks. Eight is pretty much the description of medium: hair colour, height, brown skin, average in hand-to-hand combat. At their birth, he was fairly heavyset, but four months of training have turned fat to muscle. Eight will never be as agile as Seven or Ten, and may never hit as hard as Six, but as Alpha’s medic, he is more than competent.   
‘Animals are easier,’ Ten replies. ‘I’ll be all right.’  
‘All obedience to the Leader, the Second, and the Third,’ Eight murmurs. ‘You do need sleep, Ten. Want meds?’  
‘You’ll have to report it, and I don’t need Trainer looming over my shoulder and questioning my competence. I’ll try to sleep, take them in the morning.’’

***

Ten listens through the comms to his Adelphoi carrying out their tasks. Everything seems to be going swimmingly, from the two techies with their computers leaving a trail of ‘adjusted’ paperwork to the schmoozing grifters who are in the meeting itself, ready to take advantage of the confusion. The air around him feels cloying and his mind seems capable only of thinking the mission since the meds they had that morning.  
His watch chimes softly once. He’s been sighting his target for about five minutes now, waiting until the speaker advances to the podium, and the signal starts the sixty-second countdown. Although the other two snipers in the Adelphoi require a spotter, Ten is able to sight without one. He supposes They gave that ability to him when he was born.

The man introducing the speaker finishes and Ten can see the applause of the people at the front tables. The speaker is behind the podium now, fumbling a little with her notes. She straightens.  
Ten inhales  
and she opens her mouth  
and he exhales  
and his finger  
tightens on the trigger. 

He doesn’t watch the pandemonium, detaches and loosens the scope, packs the rifle in its case. Five, on her end, confirms the document substitution.   
Mission complete.


End file.
